A walk through the past sure is an experience . I decided to take a trip to Caraquet and visit the Village Acadien. I took the scenic route to go, followed the seashore, through Neguac, Pokemouche, Tracadie-Sheila. The weather was beautiful . Arriving at the Village Acadien entrance, a young girl who worked there saw that I was trying to take a photo with my digital camera, she very nicely asked if I wanted my photo taken, I said sure and she took my photo entering the village. I thought what a nice welcome that was. Entering the admitting building, another lady told us there was a little show beginning in five minutes so we waited to see the movie, it was about the acadians, and the deportation, and what I liked about the movie it was both in french and in english, and educational. Leaving the movie we went through the gift shop, oh I love looking through gift shops, I saw lots of books on Acadian and genealogy, postcards, little trinkets, even wooden shoes.
Next we were on our way into the village, we had a map to explain each stop, there was the Robichaud house, the Martin house, the Godin house, the Leger Blacksmith and house, the Cormier woodworking shop. Inside the houses the workers dressed in costumes acted as if they were in the late 1800s, one lady showed us how they make yarn out of wool, another man told us that long ago, the parents used to make mattresses out of straw, cover it with cloth, and under the bed they would put fresh spruce boughs, I wondered why? He replied the boughs were put there to keep the straw from getting moldy and to keep the bugs away. Now I remember my mother telling me that her father used to make their mattresses out of straw, this was in the early 1900s. What a nice thing to know.
Next we walked to the one room schoolhouse, a teacher waited for us there, we sat in the old desk which were long and seated about four to a row, it had eight rows, meaning it held 32 children. The teacher went on to explain the school system back then, and that first of all they had english reader books, she had one to show us, then they translated them into french readers, and it was first reader, second reader, third reader. She had this wooden strap, and explained to us that if you were not very bad you would get the strap on the ends of your fingers, but if you were bad the teacher would hit you across the knuckles. ouch!. Having ended her story, she then asked us to join in on an old acadian song, it was fun. The song had the words ma petite Marianne in it.
Leaving the school we proceeded to more houses and through a covered bridge, we saw ducks , we saw cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs. Old tools , old furniture, it was something to behold, knowing some of our ancestors lived that way, but to our ancestors, it was a way of living and I am sure to them it was an everyday thing, they did not know that the future would get to be so much easier. So we finally ended our walk around the village , and we headed for home a bit tired but very pleased with our day. Our next stop Fort Louisboug in Cape Breton.
Have a great day